On Saturday, a 19-year-old by the name of Noah Caluori stunned the rugby world by remarkably scoring five tries for Saracens against Sale Sharks on his first ever Prem Rugby start.
Who is this overnight sensation and what is being said about him?
An imposing and pacy winger despite his tender years, at 6ft 4ins and 100kg Caluori demonstrated his remarkable spring and ability aerially to devastating effect against Sale.
Indeed, he forced one penalty try purely due to the freakish ability of his leap – soaring so high his hips were above head height of Sale full-back Tom O’Flaherty.
His finishing to score five more tries demonstrated his lethal ability, pace and confidence. Twice he rounded 102-cap George Ford to score like he wasn’t there as Saracens scored 65 points in victory.
Caluori’s high ball ability and leap was absolutely sensational at the weekend vs Sale Sharks
Born and educated in London, Caluori’s father is Swiss and his mother English, and he joined the Saracens academy out of school.
Caluori has now been fast-tracked. Indeed, he played for the England U20s at just 18 years of age, and just last week was loaned out to Ampthill in the Championship, where he scored two tries against Cornish Pirates, having emerged off the bench for Saracens twice earlier in the season.
A week on from Caluori’s Championship bow, Sarries head coach Mark McCall saw fit to give him his Prem Rugby chance. The result? An outrageous five-try salvo.
What’s happened since is Caluori has now been added to Steve Borthwick’s senior England set-up for the upcoming Autumn Nations Series Tests against Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina as a development player.
His astounding rise may not stop there, either, with Borthwick refusing to rule out Caluori appearing for England when speaking to Sky Sports on Monday from Pennyhill Park.
“He’s a player who’s been on the radar for some time, coming through the England pathway system. I think everyone’s known there’s an exciting talent there,” Borthwick told Sky Sports.
“All the information that has been fed to me from the England pathway coaches, Conor O’Shea, Mark Mapletoft, is there’s some good young players coming in, he’s one of them.
“I think then the rate of his development has accelerated over these last number of months. That’s great credit to him and great credit to the club.
“That’s always important, those first steps when you’re in an international environment, because there’s no doubt it is different to a club environment. I think he already has respect for him, the ability and talent he has.
“I think it’s certainly a possibility [he plays for England this November]. I think if you start looking at the number of options we have on the wing, there’s some good players in that position.”
The 19-year-old has caused a huge stir in rugby after his performance
McCall: Everyone has to take a breath – he’s far from the perfect player yet
While the response to his unique feat has been near universal wonder and excitement, Caluori’s club head coach McCall is the only person so far to urge caution.
“Noah’s aerial ability is unique, but everyone has got to take a breath,” McCall said.
“He’s quite a special player and a great kid as well. He’s a very balanced and sensible young fella who is obviously going to get a lot of attention.
“He’s capable of dealing with that, but he’s not the perfect player yet – far from it.
“He knows he has a lot of things to improve on. His ceiling’s absolutely huge, but let’s enjoy him and let him grow in the right way.
“There’s a responsibility and duty of care to a very young man, on us as a club and the media as well, to protect him and look after him in the right way.”
Sanderson: Caluori showed he’s a rare talent
McCall’s counterpart at Sale Sharks Alex Sanderson couldn’t help but praise Caluori too. Again, his agility and ability in the air was highlighted.
“I don’t think it could have gone any better for him. Five tries? Jesus! He beat us alone in that sense, if you look at the scoreline,” Sanderson said.
“You’ve got to be physical in the air. You’ve got to be able to bump and knock and be willing to take an aerial collision because once a young lad like that gets his confidence up there’s no stopping him.
“He was allowed too much time and space in the air, like he was in the wide channels.
“Fair play to him, he was brilliant and he was dangerous with the ball in the wide channels as he was with the ball aerially. You’ve got to rattle him. He’s a rare talent.”
Pundits Warburton, Ashton, Hamilton wax lyrical – ‘Lost for words’
Following Saracens’ victory, former Wales and British and Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton was one of the first to urge England to bring the teenager into the mix as part of some very high praise.
“I haven’t seen a player this good in the air, ever, and he’s a teenager,” Warburton said on TNT Sports.
“Get him in the England squad. He’s got it. This kid is going to be amazing.
“I cannot believe the height he can get off the ground – he’s almost undefendable.
“I’ve never seen anyone like him. I’m not saying you’d start him, but get him in the [England] environment. I’m telling you now, he’s going to be a special player.”
Former England wing Chris Ashton concurred, and was as effusive in his assessment. In fact, he was almost stunned by what he had witnessed.
“He’ll only need 20 games to get my record if he plays like that,” Ashton said.
“I’ve seen his ability in the air, but he’s gliding past players with ease which you don’t see very often. He’s scored three or four really good tries, you might get one [usually].
“He’s in a great team and, yes, Sale went down to 14 men, but in the first half, Sale didn’t know how to deal with his ability in the air. To get five tries on your first start is…I’m lost for words. It is that good.
“Has he set the bar too high?”
Former Scotland and Saracens lock Jim Hamilton, who fronts one of the most popular podcasts in rugby, posted on X afterwards: “Noah Caluori is gonna be one of the biggest stars Rugby has ever seen.”
As for the man himself. Even he couldn’t quite comprehend what he had just produced:
“I’m probably going to watch it back and think ‘how did this happen?’,” Caluori told TNT.
“I just wanted to take the opportunity and make the most out of it. As a team, we had a set goal this week to going back to being ruthless, bouncing back to zero and going again, putting our all into this game.
“I was speaking to my mates back home saying I couldn’t believe names like Maro Itoje are my team-mates now. All of us youngsters are trying to learn as much as we can from them.”
Watch this space.
England’s training squad ahead of Autumn Nations Series
Forwards
Fin Baxter (Harlequins)
Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers)
Alex Coles (Northampton Saints)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks)
Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins)
Theo Dan (Saracens)
Ben Earl (Saracens)
Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears)
Jamie George (Saracens)
Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers)
Emeka Ilione (Leicester Tigers)
Maro Itoje (Saracens)
Nick Isiekwe (Saracens)
Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks)
Guy Pepper (Bath Rugby)
Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints)
Bevan Rodd (Sale Sharks)
Will Stuart (Bath Rugby)
Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby)
Backs
Henry Arundell (Bath Rugby)
Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints)
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs)
George Ford (Sale Sharks)
Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints)
Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby)
Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints)
Cadan Murley (Harlequins)
Max Ojomoh (Bath Rugby)
Raffi Quirke (Sale Sharks)
Adam Radwan (Leicester Tigers)
Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
Fin Smith (Northampton Saints)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins)
Ben Spencer (Bath Rugby)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers)
In addition, as part of a development agreement with Saracens, Noah Caluori, will join the squad for training.
